Series of Mapplethorpe photos to be donated to Kinsey Institute

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction recently acquired a collection of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, an American photographer who documented gay sexuality in the 1970s.

Mapplethorpe began photographing close friends in the gay community of New York City, which helped start his career.

Some of his earliest portraits were of Patty Smith, a rock-and-roll musician and singer, and most of them were in black and white.

“(Mapplethorpe) is a very respected American artist who influenced a lot of artists who came after him,” said Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of art, artifacts and photographs at the Kinsey Institute.

The Kinsey Institute received 30 photographs from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the largest collection of Mapplethorpe photographs in the Midwest.

“The real credit for bringing these 30 photographs to IU goes to a good friend of mine named Malcolm Daniel, who is the curator in charge of the Department of Photographs in the Met,” said Claude Cookman, a member of the Kinsey Institute Board of Trustees and an associate professor in the School of Journalism.

“He was acquainted with what the Kinsey Institute does, and he proposed donating some of Mapplethorpe’s collection,” Cookman said.

Kinsey is planning an exhibition of the Mapplethorpe collection, which will be on the IU campus within the next two years.

“I think the people working with us saw the value of having a Mapplethorpe collection here at Kinsey because (the institute) is well known for its research in sexuality and its remarkable research collection,” Johnson-Roehr said.